Events & Promotions
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Question Stats:
66% (01:05) correct
34%
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KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
Step 1: Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors
This sentence contains an underlined verb, so that’s where we’ll start our investigation. There is no
difference between the singular and plural forms of “had been,” so there is no subject-verb agreement
error. However, the verb tense does not match the meaning of the sentence. The past perfect
tense, indicated by the use of the helping verb “had,” is only appropriate when there are two past
events, with one having occurred before the other. In that situation, the past perfect would be used
for the earlier of the two events. In the underlined clause of this sentence, though, there is only a
single, continuous action—involvement in on-campus political activities. So there should be no use
of the past perfect, and the use of the word “had” needs to be corrected.
Step 2: Scan and Group the Answer Choices
(A) and (B) retain the verb “had been involved.” (C) and (D) both use “have been involved,” while
(E) uses “are involved.”
Step 3: Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains
We know that “had been involved” is an incorrect verb tense, so we can eliminate (A) and (B).
Choice (E) uses the present tense, but the action being described has been happening “during the
last few years,” so we have another inappropriate tense and can eliminate (E) as well. That leaves
(C) and (D). Both use the correct tense, the present perfect, to describe an action that occurred in
the past over the course of several years. The only difference between them is that (C) adds the word
“other” to the phrase “at any time,” while (D) does not. We’ll need to look carefully at the intended
meaning of the original sentence to see which is correct. The “last few years” are included in the
“past two decades,” so the author of the sentence is really trying to compare the “last few years” to
any “other” time during the past two decades. (C) adds this subtle but proper comparative adjective
and is therefore the correct answer.
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